Space Station Sunday: Some Landing And Some Expanding

Good afternoon, space fans!  It’s been an amazing week for astro-adventuring.  Here’s what was up!

The SpaceX Dragon joins the ISS party, and brought one really interesting
balloon from Bigelow Aerospace...
(Image courtesy spacex.com.)

Data And DNA: Encoding Digital Files Into Genetic Material Creates Serious Storage Space

Humanity is accruing data at an unprecedented rate.  All those Tweets, tags, photos, cat videos, terrible novels, decent screenplays, drafts of terrible novels that might eventually become decent screenplays, and everything else we shoot, snap, sing, strum, or smash into a computer is adding up.  There's the possibility of etching literary works into crystals, sure, but what about those of us who need some somewhat-simpler storage?  A new answer might surprise you...because it's also PART of you...

It's just like burning a CD...into genes.
(Image courtesy assignmentexpert.com.)

How to Get Around the New York Times and Washington Post Paywalls without Really Trying

If you are a news junky, you've most likely come across paywalls for sites like the New York Times and Washington Post, which allow users to access a small number of articles every month, before they block access:

There are, however, a number of easy ways to bypass the paywalls for these particular sites.

Electrifying: Tesla Model 3 Demand Hits 325,000 Reservations

We've fought wars over it, ruined countless swaths of the environment over it, created unimaginably massive fortunes due to it, crushed entire parallel industries over it, and in general had it govern our lives way more than any fuel source should, but any rational modern human has to admit:  the fossil fuel empire is over.  Now, the next phase of transportation is about to do donuts all over our past fast 'n furious foibles...but will the massive demand exceed the possibilities of prompt production?

Sharp AND smart:  the Model 3 is a ride not to be denied.
(Image courtesy digitaltrends.com.)

Space Station Sunday: From Progress To A Dragon

Good afternoon, space fans!  Here's all of this week's news from low earth orbit.

Mail call!  The Progress cargo ship approaches the ISS.
(Image courtesy Jeff Williams / NASA.gov.)

Reforestation Is The Bomb: Retrofitted Military Cargo Planes Help Plant Trees

Earth needs trees, but humans and our pesky usurpation keep cutting them down.  But what if we could use that incessant drive to conquer as a force for good forestry?  Taking over land is always a major objective of warfare, so why not use a weapon of war to help improve vast swaths of land?

Botany has never looked so badass.
(Image courtesy xplanes.tumblr.com.)

Seven Silly Swindles: April Fool's Day 2016

It's April Fool's Day, and we decided not to be mean.  That sounds weird, yes, but really, we're not going to tell you NASA is having a $10 rocket-ride lottery or that a new cancer treatment works but turns your skin plaid, or that an actual time machine has been invented but that it only goes to the 1990s.  You're smarter than that.  So, let's instead revel in the havoc wrought on other unsuspecting world-wide-websurfers (wait, seriously, that time machine thing isn't real?) today.

Mr. T pities any fools who were taken in by bad jokes today.
(Image courtesy countdown.onlineclock.net.)